League of Legends - Nami Ability Tips

Considered to be weak shortly after her release, Nami has received nothing but straight buffs since. As she stands now, she is a very good and versatile support champion who offers a lot of things an ADC wants from a lane partner: Sustain, crowd control, poke, disengage. Starting to see some competitive play, it's becoming quite clear that Nami has arisen to the status of a very strong support champion. However, she does require a fair bit of practice and knowledge to play properly, and since every tip helps, I've decided to write this post, which focuses on each of her abilities.

Surging Tides (Passive)

• Nami's passive grants a small burst of bonus movement speed to each ally you cast an ability on. This may sound a bit underwhelming, but it's not to be underestimated. Its primary use is to help your teammates kite, chase and escape, but it's also handy for moving around the map in general.
• When leaving your base, feel free to randomly cast an ability or two on your teammates. They'll get a movement speed bonus, you'll regenerate your mana instantly, and the cooldowns will be back by the time you reach your destination.
• One thing to take note of is the fact that you can apply your passive to your teammates even with those spells that don't directly affect them. For instance, tossing your bubble onto an area where an ally is standing will apply your passive to them.

Aqua Prison (Q)

• Also known as her trademark bubble. An area of effect 1.5 second stun, there's virtually no reason to not take this ability at level 1. However, you'll probably want to max it last - at rank five, Aqua Prison's cooldown is only 4 seconds shorter, and the stun duration stays the same. The area of effect is actually surprisingly large, you'll find yourself hitting two champions with it more than you'd expect.
• Famous for being tough to land, it requires a bit of practice with reading enemy movement. Due to the nature of the ability, it's nice against enemies who's movement can be easily telegraphed to you: Draven, Zac and Thresh stand out in particular. Conversely, it gets difficult to use against nimble champions, such as Vayne, Kassadin and Ezreal.
• Even though it may look like a knockup, Aqua Prison is still a stun. It can be cleansed and QSS'd and its duration is reduced by tenacity, so keep that in mind.
• Don't hesitate to use it in lane when you see someone out of position. It's not just for disengages or all-ins.
• Q becomes significantly easier to land when the enemy is already stunned/snared/slowed. If the opportunity presents itself, you can try casting E on yourself, slowing the enemy with a basic attack, and landing an easier bubble that way.
• Some of the easiest bubbles to land are when your target has no vision of you. Use the brush and tricks with line of sight as much as possible.
• If you're trying to escape from a melee character who's already on your back, toss your Q right in front of your feet (or fins...), dodging a point blank Aqua Prison is almost impossible.
• When walking up to ward a brush, it's often a good idea to toss a bubble in there to avoid facechecking it. If someone's there, the stun will give you plenty of time to put the ward down and run away. If not, then no big deal, still better safe than sorry. Hitting someone in the fog of war also grants vision of them.
• Although it's a cheap ability to use to apply your passive onto someone, being without your primary crowd control leaves you vulnerable. As such, the only time I recommend using it for the movement speed boost is when you're leaving base.

Ebb and Flow (W)

• A prime laning and teamfighting tool, it provides both sustain and poke, bouncing off of both enemies and allies. Depending on how efficiently you use it, it can affect up to three players: Either healing two and poking one, or poking two and healing one. Because of this, and the fact that the bounce range is fairly close to an average ADC's autoattack range, it's a godlike tool for 2v2 trades in lane.
• If you cast it on an ally, afterwards the ability finds an enemy to bounce to, and if it does, then it finds one more ally to bounce to. If you cast it on an enemy, the opposite is true. Which means that in the ideal situation: Cast on ally = Heal > Poke > Heal; Cast on enemy = Poke > Heal > Poke. Weigh both options, and decide whether at the moment you need more health, or more damage.
• In my experience, this ability is actually much harder to use to its full potential than Aqua Prison, due to the bounce component. I'd say that reading good opportunities to cast your W and taking advantage of them is the most difficult part of playing Nami.
• Be smart about using your W, don't just spam it every time it's off cooldown. Its mana cost becomes very high very fast, but you'll quickly realize it justifies itself when you're hitting multiple players with it.
• Don't jeopardize yourself with the ability either, try to avoid putting yourself in a needlessly dangerous position just to get an extra bounce.
• Even though you want to be hitting as many people as possible with it at all times, often settling for two hits is just fine, and if you're in a particularly bad situation, don't be afraid to just heal your ADC under tower. Be very careful not to drain your mana pool this way, though - often all they need is a little health boost in order to safely hit creeps, and then they'll just lifesteal their life back that way.
• In more complex scenarios, try think of the most efficient bounces you can pull off. Example: Between you and your teammate, there is an enemy. You want to heal your teammate, and can do so if you use Ebb and Flow on your enemy, because everyone is in bounce range. However, casting it immediately on the enemy would be wasting a bounce that could have otherwise gone to you. Furthermore, there's no way to predict that the heal won't actually bounce to you instead of your teammate. In this case, one correct thing you could do is cast it on yourself. That way, it heals you, jumps onto the enemy, and from the enemy onto your ally.

Tidecaller's Blessing (E)

• At rank one this ability is Nami's cheapest one (55 mana), which makes it the best candidate for applying your passive to teammates. The cost increases with ranks, but it still remains the best skill for reliably giving movespeed boosts.
• Understanding the advantages your AD carry gains from Tidecaller's Blessing is an important part of knowing the best times to cast the ability. The on-hit slow, along with the movement speed boost from your passive gives them a massive, but short burst of greatly enhanced kiting potential - this advantage naturally becomes more valuable the more mechanically skilled your lane partner is. Tidecaller's Blessing can also help less skilled players though, an ADC who has difficulty last hitting properly will have an easier time farming with the extra damage (it's also helpful for farming under the turret).
• Your E is also a decent chasing tool, don't hesitate to put it on anyone who can easily apply the slow onto someone who's running away, including yourself.
• Even though your AD Carry is usually the best candidate to proc all three hits as fast as possible, once he or she gets enough attack speed, eventually they'll start attacking much faster than it takes for the slow to fully wear off. What this means is that some of the slow component of the spell goes to waste, because it gets refreshed with every hit instead of stacking. This doesn't mean that you should never cast your E on your ADC if your goal is to slow people down, but it's something to keep in mind.
• Another thing to remember is that the damage from the ability stays the same no matter who you cast it on. That means that although the ADC will usually apply the damage the fastest, in the end you can cast it on anyone and still end up dealing just as much damage. Which means that when deciding on a target, the things you have to consider are the movement speed boost, the slow, and how fast you need to deal the damage. Many melee champions will appreciate the sticking power of the ability.

Tidal Wave (R)

• Although the duration of the slow increases from 2 up to 4 seconds depending on the distance the wave traveled, the knockup always stays the same. This means that you should never worry about having to cast it point blank, but when you do use it from a distance, you gain an extra benefit.
• Because of this ability's ridiculously long range and the fact that it applies your passive to teammates, it's most advantageous to cast this ability as an initiation tool while standing behind the rest of your team - they get to run in faster, while the enemy is knocked up and slowed.
• Although the wave moves slowly, it's still difficult for most enemies to outrun it without some serious movement speed boosts. Still, don't count on always landing it.
• Even though it's a good initiation ability, it's also fantastic for disengaging or rescuing teammates. When an ally in trouble is running towards you and you cast your ultimate, it becomes extremely hard for the enemy to dodge it because of the much shorter time they have to react.
• Due to the slow nature of the spell, it often works as a very good followup to someone else's initiation, similarly to Sona's ultimate. If Malphite charges in with Unstoppable Force, there's virtually no escape from Tidal Wave.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool